Some of that good will...back.

That "song" I had mentioned in yesertday's blog, well I brought it to practice last night and it's definitely a band song. And even better is that it's coming together fairly quickly, which doesn't happen very often. Let's go behind the curtain for a minute.

When you write a tune, or a riff, or a chord progression, or anything that you want to bring in to a band situation, it's never as easy as bringing it in and voila! it's a done deal. It might be for solo artists, or bands where one person is the main writer without question. I like to try and keep it more democratic (while at the same time being the asshole that doesn't like having his genius musical ideas contradicted; it's a dichotomy, I know). At any rate, an idea comes in, and whether or not it gets used, there seems to be a lot of discussion or hemming and hawing about it. That's cool, but sometimes it happens to the point where it gridlocks and nothing happens. We've been sort of in that mode for a while. Partly, it's my fault. I've been bringing in half formed ideas with the intention of having them fleshed out in a band format. I like working like that, but at the same time two things have to happen to make that work: 1) The band has to have a knack for writing with each other, and that takes time. We're not fully there yet, but that's something that just comes with time and familiarity. And 2) The band has to be "feeling it' when you attempt it. Even if you've been playing together for years, you still have to be "feeling it" on a particular night when you try to write like that. Let's face it, sometimes you're not.

With this new tune, (note, I call it a tune, because I had both a verse and chorus part worked out, as opposed to just one or the other; certainly they weren't arranged yet, but both main parts were there), I had a good nucleus already when I brought it in, and here's how it went:

I got there and Kevin (other guitar player) was already there, setting up. We warmed up a bit and I showed him the part. We jammed it out a bit. He put a sweet lead over an "intro", and I showed him both guitar parts for the verse, and we decided which of us would play which. We jammed through a rough arrangement that was essentially verse-chorus-repeat. Jon (drummer) and Matt (vocals) showed up roughly about the same time. (Our bass player, Rick wasn't able to make it last night.) Me and Kevin jammed out the rough arrangement and Jon jumped in, throwing a nice little groove underneath. We worked it out a little further while Matt was getting himself set up. We then did a run through or two with matt singing some garbage lyrics (basically just throwing stuff out off the top of his head) to test out some melodies. The verse sounded really good, the chorus not as much. Matt did mention that he wasn't feeling the chorus as far as melodies This was probably over the span of 45 minutes or so.

We then took a break from it and ran through the rest of our tunes. At the end of the night, we took one more run through it. Same as the last time. Verses sounded a little more "ready" than the chorus. We then broke for the night. Jon and Kevin left and Matt mentioned that he still wasn't fully on board with the chorrus. He then played me an idea from something he had been working on as another option. It sounded good; the chords were almost exactly like "Ballad In Urgency" by the Black Crowes, but the melody was totally different. It sounded good and fit, and Matt seemed cool with my asking if I could either throw in a riff or rhythmic change to downplay the Crowes comparison, (which I haven't done yet; I need to sit down with it and think out some ideas). We then might take the original "chorus" idea and turn it into a solo section, because the music is pretty sweet.

Total time worked on tune, (so far), including my writing it the night before: approximately 3 hours. And I think we have the potential for a really cool tune here.

This is how it goes on a good night. And while it's few and far between to have a night like that, when you do, it leaves you in a great mood.